Off the Beaten Path
by Soul Reaver
Summary: During Vic Garibaldi's senior year, he has no idea he is going to be attracted to one of the girls at the Xavier Institute...(Same disclaimer rules apply)


Off the Beaten Path  
  
Disclaimer: Same rules apply; I own none of the X-men Evolution characters in this fanfic.  
  
Victor Garibaldi's heart hammered in his chest. Kitty had always been a friend of his, since freshman year, but lately he had started to think differently about her. Jesus Christ, it's the middle of senior year, what a moron I've been not to realize this.  
  
All in all Victor, Vic to his friends wasn't a bad looking guy. Though he was a bit rough around the edges, having no trouble saying what exactly was on his mind, as opposed to going with the crowd, his really good friends (the few he had) thought of him as one of the most honest individuals they knew. This, however, did not endear him to a vast majority of the mercurial kids high on Bayville high school's social ladder.  
  
Damn you Bert. Victor thought, Finding this out and spreading it into the rumor mill.  
  
Bert, one of Victor's good friends, had taken it upon himself to play the matchmaker. He saw the familiar figure with the beat up second hand A-2 flight jacket worn over an Army of One t-shirt and a generic pair of jeans. "Did you ask her yet?" Bert asked.  
  
"Jesus Bert." Victor said as they walked into the gym for some hockey sticks, "I just said I think Kitty's kinda cute not that I was madly in love with her."  
  
"Still, its high time…" said Bert.  
  
"Ready for another parking lot hockey game?" Vic said.  
  
"Damn you Garibaldi." Bert said, "Don't change the subject."  
  
Both carrying an armload of hockey sticks, Bert and Victor threw a game together. "Hey there she is, go ask her."  
  
A kid swung his hockey stick in a big arc, hitting the puck hard, causing it to fly through the air at high velocity, straight at Kitty. "Look out!" Vic shouted, running forward and tackling Kitty Pryde into the ground. The puck sailed overhead and struck a parked car.  
  
"You okay." Vic said, helping Kitty up and brushing dust and debris off his beat up leather jacket.  
  
"I'm fine, thanks Vic." Kitty said, smiling and brushing away a stray hair lock.  
  
Vic's narrow face smiled back, "Just started up another hockey game."  
  
"Vic, last year when you did that you busted your collar bone." Kitty said.  
  
"Well it's all in good fun." Vic Garibaldi said, "Besides, I'm too much of a wild card for organized sports."  
  
"Hence you're going into the Army of One." Kitty replied.  
  
"Latest recruiting slogan." Vic said, walking over to his car, a weathered 1988 Chevy Camaro. The six-digit Florida license plate he had mounted on the front read GO ARMY and his bumper sported both the normal New Jersey plate and two more pro Army bumper stickers.  
  
"Well, why not go to college." Kitty said.  
  
"The Master Sergeant said the same thing, unfortunately I can't afford to." Vic said.  
  
"Call him dad for goodness sakes." Kitty said, "You're still a civilian Vic, not a soldier."  
  
"I guess you're right, Kitty. Well anyway, mom and dad are ready to make that sacrifice for me but I decided not to because they've got the other two to take care of, my brothers, Mario and Emmanuel."  
  
Vic dropped his books into his back seat and felt the moment had come. C'mon you freaking wuss ask her already. He thought.  
  
Kitty read what Victor was about to say a bare second before he said it. "So what are you doing Friday night?" Victor asked, his heart still hammering but the pounding less now.  
  
"Nothing really." Kitty said.  
  
"I was wondering if you would be interested in seeing a movie with me." Vic said.  
  
Kitty felt a little surprised at this point, Vic had always been easy to get along with but what exactly did this little gesture mean. She had seen him show up at all sorts of occasions, parties, study groups, even movies, but they always had been with other people never just her and Vic.  
  
Vic Garibaldi was waiting an eternity for her answer. He was sure he had blown it, catching her completely off guard. "Sure Vic."  
  
"Great." Vic said, heart hammering a little less, "When do you want me to pick you up? Six o'clock sound okay?"  
  
"That's fine. See you at six Vic." Kitty said and walked off to Scott's car.  
  
Back at the Institute, "So what do you think this means?" Kitty asked Rogue as she was choosing between two outfits.  
  
"What?" Rogue said, playing innocent for a minute, "Oh you mean Vic Garibaldi asking you to go see a movie?"  
  
"What have we been talking about for the past ten minutes." Kitty replied, "Of course I mean Vic asking me out."  
  
"Kitty you are so dumb sometimes, he likes you." Rogue replied teasingly.  
  
"You really think so?" Kitty replied, "I mean he is cute in a kinda rough way…"  
  
"Oh admit it Kitty you think he's interesting maybe you're even attracted to him but you're a little worried about what your friends will think because he's a little off the beaten path." Rogue replied.  
  
Meanwhile Vic Garibaldi was standing in front of a mirror in his bedroom. Never in his life had he felt so self conscious, so scruffy looking. He threw on a clean set of jeans, a gray Army t-shirt and his beat up brown A- 2 flight jacket.  
  
He felt even more self-conscious when he drove up the drive toward the Xavier Institute. It was a large, palatial mansion larger than any house he had yet seen. It seemed almost as large and as elaborate as the grounds of Newschawnstein castle in Germany. He remembered that because his father had been stationed there several years ago when he was nine.  
  
Here goes everything. Vic thought, stepping out of his beloved '88 Camaro, pulling down the front of his beat up jacket. He rang the doorbell and was greeted by a broad shouldered man in a cowboy and a brown motorcycle jacket. "Who are you, bub?"  
  
"Victor Garibaldi," Vic said, doing his best to sound confident and not betray the uneasiness he felt, "I'm a friend of Kitty's."  
  
A bald man in a wheel chair said, "Logan, it's alright, he's just a guest. Professor Charles Xavier pleased to meet you Mr. Garibaldi."  
  
Vic took the bald man's hand and shook it with a firm grip. "Logan didn't scare you did he?" Xavier said.  
  
"No, actually he reminds me of Sergeant Major San Martin a friend of my father's when he were stationed in Germany. That man was a monster. He was at least six and a half feet tall, could bench over three hundred and fifty pounds, and could really scare the daylights outta people."  
  
The movie was interesting, to say the least, but it wasn't anything really spectacular. In fact, as they walked out of the theater Kitty said, "Wasn't that movie such a total waste?"  
  
"I really hated the thing." Garibaldi replied, in fact he held his tongue throughout the film, thinking it was something Kitty might enjoy, however, she didn't. "By act one, you knew the guy was definitely a vampire, there was no mystery there."  
  
Throughout the drive home they talked back and forth, about what they were planning for after high school, about school, about an assortment of things. Parking his car beside Scott's red convertible, Garibaldi felt a little uncomfortable again, Kitty's outfit was a tribute to modern fashion and taste, while his was a little more subdued, the gray Army t-shirt, beat up leather jacket, and jeans. He walked her up to her door as Kitty said, "I had a really good time Vic, minus the movie, thanks."  
  
"You're welcome. I was wondering if we could do this again some time." Vic said.  
  
"How's next Saturday sound?" Kitty said.  
  
"Sounds good to me." Vic said. The next few moments were mentally a blur in Vic's mind as he reached a hand forward to ring the doorbell. Kitty's hand brushed against his, obviously intending to do the same thing. He turned to say something to her, and then it happened.  
  
Kitty couldn't quite explain what she was feeling even if she tried. Sure Vic was cute, handsome even, in a close cropped and middle class sort of way, but he wasn't that much of a heart stopper. She kissed him, a light peck on the cheek, as the door opened.  
  
As Victor Garibaldi walked back to his car, he smiled, a wide grin creasing his Italian American face. He got behind the wheel, started the engine and began crowing, "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Amore…"  
  
Little did he know that Kurt Wagner had seen the same thing. "Oh man," Kurt said, "Now she really won't dig the fuzzy dude."  
  
To be continued… 


End file.
